Insult to Injury in the Blink of an Eye

Both C and I became more “seasoned” in our parenting experience last night, let me explain.

We got home from our Easter lunch in the mid-late afternoon, upon getting home, we put B down for a nap. He slept and slept and slept. Neither C or I thought anything of it because we had had a big day celebrating Easter and just assumed that B was exhausted and trying to catch up on his sleep.

Little did we know that B’s body temperature  had started to creep up as he napped. We finally woke B up in the late evening with the plan to feed him dinner, play and then get him ready for bed.  When we went to wake him up, we discovered a very flushed, very red, very hot and very pitiful little boy. We immediately took his temperature only to learn that he had a 104.2 degree fever!  My heart went into panic mode…while C (like usual) kept his composure and loved on B. I ran to the kitchen to get the Motrin and then called' B’s doctor.  The Motrin did its job and B’s fever fell back to about 100 degrees within about 20 minutes.  Our pediatrician’s nurse and a family friend didn’t seem too concerned, (they didn’t think we needed to head to the ER…which we were thrilled about) but both encouraged us to watch him through the night and then make an appointment with the doctor first thing in the morning…that sounded easy enough!

We sat and rocked with B for several minutes…I have to admit that he is a lot more cuddly when he isn’t feeling good!  Later, I made the plan that I would try to keep him up until about 10:00pm so we could monitor his temperature to make sure that the Motrin was continuing to do its job.  B and I hung out together on the couch (while I watched some TV). He just sat and cuddled…

He didn’t have any get-up-and-go in him what-so-ever! Then in the blink of an eye (no pun intended, adding insult to injury, he sat up and had a burst of energy…that burst of energy catapulted him off the couch and into the side/corner of the coffee table…I jumped to catch his little body as major crying ensued!  B’s eye puffed up like a marshmallow in a matter of seconds, I became hysterical and again, C calmly kept his composure and tried to examine B’s eye.  We both decided that we would be rather safe than sorry, grabbed the car keys and headed the the ER…the place that we had so proudly avoided just a few hours earlier.

Upon arriving at the ER, we entered triage where a couple of nurses asked what had happened and both C and I tried to explain why B had still been awake, the whole fever fiasco etc.  About a half hour later we were sent to register and after that we waited…

and waited…

and waited…

and waited…

while waiting, both C and I were overwhelmed by the “perspective check” we were experiencing!  How grateful we are to have insurance, a pediatrician…each other! We may have to stop by the ER every once and again to be reminded of how blessed we are (just visit though…not actually need to be seen)!

We continued our wait…one of us would hold B outside (in effort to not expose him to all the nasty germs that seemed to be crawling all over the waiting room) while the other stood inside the waiting room hoping that B’s name would be called next so that we could see a doctor and go home.

While we waited, B’s diaper decided to shift…and yes, B peed all over me…of course, I didn’t have the diaper bag with us, so we had to ask for a baby-sized hospital gown so we could change him (that was humbling)…not to mention humbling that we even used the changing table in the bathroom…something that I had told myself I would NEVER do! Oh, how I have eaten so many of my pre-mommyhood words!

At this point, we had been waiting to see a doctor for almost three hours, so we decided to ask  where B was on  the patient list, we thought his name would surely be towards the top of the list…

Not so much! We were told that  there are still at least 5 patients in front of B and that could expect at least another hour wait! Meanwhile B is screaming, he is wearing a hospital gown, I am wet from B’s accident, the kids around us are throwing up and crying, B’s eye is no longer near as swollen as it had been and tracking and dilated properly…

So the logical side of C kicked in and he asked me why are we doing this? Realizing that B was probably in more  danger  of contracting some awful germ at the ER  than of sleeping at home with his puffy eye! Especially knowing that he would be seeing his normal doctor in a matter of hours (because at this point it was after midnight) to have his fever checked!

Praise God! B did make it through the night safe and sound, the Motrin kept his temperature normal. His eye was pretty puffy when he woke up…it made you wondering what the other guy looked like?  After heading to the doctor, B got a clean bill of health…the fever could have been related to teething or he could have had a small throat virus…but the most incredible part was this, B’s doctor told us that “Our eyes are designed  to close upon major impact. The area around the eye is designed to handle the brunt of any trauma, that tissue will be bruised and hurt but the eye will not be…” How incredible is that? Our Heavenly Creator really knew what He was doing when he created us, we are praising Him for B’s eye lids, that they knew to close “in the blink of an eye” to protect his precious eye from a pretty serious injury!

This is what B has to show for his second Easter, his doctor called it “Easter in the ER”!  I guess we could call it a small Easter miracle & reminder! We never anticipated spending Easter night in the ER, but came away being drawn closer to our Heavenly Father…Easter is supposed to do just that, right? It is awesome to see God at work in our little family’s life!